{{quote|The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!|[[Aragorn]]<ref>{{TT|Riders}}</ref>}}

'''Middle-earth''' ([[Quenya|Q.]] ''[[Endor]]'') was a large continent of [[Arda]], situated between [[Aman]] to the [[Uttermost West|West]] (across [[Belegaer]]), and the [[Land of the Sun]] to the [[East]] (across the [[East Sea]]).

'''Middle-earth''' ([[Quenya|Q.]] ''[[Endor]]'') was a large continent of [[Arda]], situated between [[Aman]] to the [[Uttermost West|West]] (across [[Belegaer]]), and the [[Land of the Sun]] to the [[East]] (across the [[East Sea]]).

Revision as of 22:58, 11 October 2013

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Contents

Geography

Middle-earth is a large continent, a mass of land that occupies the central regions of Arda. It lays between two continents; Aman, the uttermost West from which it is separated by the ocean Belegaer, and the Land of the Sun, at the uttermost East which the East Sea separates.

Another known name of the East was the Empty Lands. The eastern land-mass was encircled by ranges of mountains, the Red and the Yellow Mountains which mirrored the Blue and the Grey of the West respectively. There was also a mythical Last Desert; but its status or existence in the later years was unknown.

History

This is the geographical history. For events happening in Middle-earth, see Timeline.

After the end of the First Age and the drowning of Beleriand, the geography east of the Ered Luin shifted. The Ered Luin themselves, now broken up and disfigured, marked the western border of Eriador, and thence Lindon and Belegaer itself. Eriador, now the Westernmost part of Middle-earth, was bordered on the East by the Hithaeglir, the Misty Mountains, which stretched down south to the White Mountains and the Bay of Belfalas. Across the Misty Mountains from Eriador was Rhovanion, which extended east to the Sea of Rhûn and the vast lands beyond. Within Rhovanion were the great forest of Mirkwood, the forest of Fangorn, and the many-rivered area that would become known as Gondor. To the east was the region of Mordor, encircled on three sides by mountains. To the far north of Rhovanion was the icy Forodwaith.

Names

The peoples called Middle-earth by several names. The Elves called the continent Endóre or Endor in Quenya meaning "middle land"; the Sindarin form was Ennor, also used in the plural ennorath "middle lands, lands of Middle-earth".

Other epithets of the continent were Hither Shores or Hither Lands contrasted to Aman beyond the sea. The Hobbits envisioned Middle-earth as the Wide World[4] and the Outer Lands[5] or Great Lands, since it was so much larger than the continent of Aman.[6].

Inspiration

Tolkien created Arda, including and especially Middle-earth, for his languages Quenya and Sindarin, especially the latter as it turned out. To Tolkien, a scholar of the Anglo-Saxon language, Middle-earth was the English translation of the Old English word middanġeard. This word was transformed in the Middle Englishmidden-erd or middel-erd, and the Old NorseMidgard. This is English for what the Greeks called the οικουμένη (oikoumenē) or "the abiding place of men", the physical world as opposed to the unseen worlds.[7]

The ancient peoples called the world "middle-earth" since it was imagined to be between the realm of the Giants below and the realm of the gods above. However in Tolkien's cosmology the name Middle-earth refers only to a continent, which (in the First and Second Ages) is set between two seas, Belegaer and the East Sea.

Each adaptation has made changes, subtractions, or additions to Tolkien's creation, often adding new locations, creatures, or characters. For the most part, however, the overall geography and style of Tolkien's Middle-earth has been retained.